The contract to recruit 700 mother-tongue English speaking teachers to start work in September will be offered today.
Senior education officer Tsui Chi-wing said yesterday: 'We need an organisation to do the co-ordination work. It would be better if it had overseas connections as our recruitment campaign will be launched worldwide.' Mr Tsui said that in the past English-speaking teachers were recruited mainly in Britain.
But this year, because of the large number of teachers required, the recruitment would be expanded to other countries whose mother tongue was English, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Irish Republic.
An interview board should be set up comprising representatives from the Education Department, local schools and the organisation which wins the contract.
'At this moment we are working out some selection criteria,' he said.
'Local teachers whose mother tongue is not English but with native-speaker English competence may also apply. But they will be assessed.' The scheme to hire 700 native-English speaking teachers is a core element in the Government's plan to improve students' language standards.
